preschool
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Netflix greenlights Pixar veteran's animated series 'Ghee Happy'
Netflix just approved Ghee Happy, a new series by animator Sanjay Patel. The colorful show will follow Hindu deities as children discovering their powers in a deity daycare, Deadline reports.
Osmo releases iPad learning kit for preschoolers
Here's an interesting alternative to playing your toddler more Sesame Street reruns: Edtech company Osmo has launched an iPad-enabled learning tool for the preschool set. Aimed at children between the ages of 3 to 5 years old, the Little Genius Starter Kit comes with four interactive games aimed at teaching youngsters the alphabet, the essentials of drawing and creative problem-solving. The company known for its iPad hookups that teach kids how to code or let them build their own racecars is diving deeper into traditional core skills like building vocabulary or learning math. Osmo already sells a Genius Starter Kit aimed at teaching older children spelling and arithmetic; this new kit is similar, just aimed at younger kids..
Bezos family launches $2 billion philanthropy fund
Jeff Bezos, the Amazon founder who happens to be the richest person on the planet, has launched a philanthropic effort with an initial commitment of $2 billion. He and his wife MacKenzie will use the Day One Fund to build a "network of new, non-profit, tier-one preschools in low-income communities" and fund "existing non-profits that help homeless families."
Lego's new toy train is a STEM tool for preschoolers
Twenty years ago Lego introduced Mindstorms as a way to engage kids who were becoming more interested in video games and the internet than plastic building blocks. It was successful enough that the kits became a regular sight in robotics classes and competitions. Now the line is on its fourth generation, and it's been joined by other STEM-friendly Lego kits like Boost and Powered Up to bring tech skills to many different types of kids. Now Lego's educational division goes even younger with Coding Express, a set that will teach 3- and 4-year-olds the basics of programming while they construct a world of trains, picnics and wandering deer.
Best educational apps for pre-schoolers
It's that time of the year again when parents, teachers and students start thinking about school. If you have an iOS device, you can supplement your child's education with a variety of quality educational iOS apps. Here are some of the best titles for children in the preschool group: TallyTots [iOS Universal; $2.99] With a variety of activities, your child will never get tired of learning about their numbers. TallyTots combines puzzles or minigames that teach your child about basic numbers, number order and sorting. With big numbers and bright colors, TallyTots is designed with kids in mind. Endless Alphabet [iOS Universal; $6.99] Endless Alphabet from Originator features more than 50 words that your child can spell in a letter-dragging mini-game that helps children identify their letters, spell words and improve their dexterity simultaneously. The app features cute characters, clear enunciation of letter sounds and delightful animations that reward a child when they complete a word. Originator also produces the similar Endless Numbers and Endless Reader apps that together with Endless Alphabet will help your pre-schooler learn to spell, count and read. Sago Mini Music Box [iOS Universal; $2.99] Introduce your children to the world of music with Sago Mini Music Box. The touch-anywhere app makes it rewarding for your toddler-aged child to explore the app as every tap is linked to a wonderful sound. The app includes children's classics such as "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" and "Row, Row, Row Your Boat." Sago Sago has an entire series of apps to entertain and educate the little ones in your household. JumpStart Preschool Magic of Learning [iOS Universal; $1.99] JumpStart brings its educational games to the iPad with its Preschool Magic of Learning app. The educational title features a series of minigames starring the familiar Frankie the Dog. Unlike other educational titles that focus on one subject, the JumpStart app targets the older preschooler with games that introduce reading, uppercase and lowercase letters, counting and more. Writing Wizard - Kids Learn to Write Letters & Words [iOS Universal; $2.99] If you are going to purchase a letter writing app for your young students, then you should check out Writing Wizard by L'Escapadou. With its colorful interface and robust reporting system, Writing Wizard is engaging for children and informative for parents. AniMatch: Animal Pairs and Sounds Matching Game [iOS Universal; $0.99] With its big buttons and wonderful animal sounds, AniMatch from Lima Sky is a delightful app for younger children. The app challenges your preschooler to a match the animal tiles in a pairing game that'll help them develop their concentration, memory and cognitive skills. Peekaboo Barn [iOS Universal; $1.99] Peekaboo Barn teaches animals sounds using friendly farm animals. The app allows you child to explore a barn with doors that open with a tap. Each time your child opens the barn doors they are rewarded with an animal sound and a new animation. Besides US english, the app also includes modules for Mandarin, Cantonese, Hindi, Japanese, Swedish, Dutch, Italian, German, French and UK English. Not only does this bring international support, it also allows your children to learn the animal names in different languages.
iTrace offers kid-friendly stroke-ordered handwriting tutorial
Last week, the TUAW back room got into an incredibly extended debate regarding the merits of iTrace (US$3.99), a kid-centric app that teaches kids basic letter-writing skills. In the end, I pinged the developer and requested a promo code to give the app a try. I'm glad I did, because even though the app centers around finger-drawing, it offers a good learning tool for new writers. Dotted animations guide the student through each stroke, enabling them to learn to shape each letter. The app is brightly illustrated and well designed, certain to appeal to young students. Meant for the core 3-7 age group, kids can learn to trace uppercase and lowercase letters, as well as numbers. A series of adult-targeted settings are hidden behind a math-based CAPTCHA system (although I suppose in this case, CAPTCHA (Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart) should really be CAPTKAA (distinguishing Kids and Adults). There, you can choose between left-handed and right-handed drawing, optional letter customization (although not the two-strokes-down "v" that I grew up using -- iTrace only does down then up), control background music and sound effects, and reach an adults-only tutorial that explains the app in more detail. The app was built for educational environments. It automatically tracks each user, so parents and teachers can view milestones; see daily, weekly, and monthly usage; and see how much effort each child is investing. The interface is easy to understand, use and fun to play with. Although the $4 price tag may strike some as premium, I found the app well worth the cost. If you're an early education teacher or a parent to young children, I think you'll find this a good tutorial. I do, however, suggest that children try using a stylus while playing with the app instead of using it exclusively with fingers. A developer-supplied promo video follows below:
Robot dragon teaches kids language skills, battles impulse to terrorize city
Did you have trouble learning language skills at a young age? It's probably because you didn't have the right teacher. And by "the right teacher," we mean the right robotic dragon, naturally. This cuddly little mythical beast is the joint creation of researchers at Northeastern University, MIT and Harvard -- some of whom were behind the decidedly creepier Nexi bot. It's part of a National Science Foundation-funded program to help young children learn language skills, suggesting that forming a bond with a teacher plays an important role in the educational process. The dragon will be brought to preschool classes to help test out this hypothesis. Hopefully a robotic knight will also be on-hand, just in case.
The Game Archaeologist and the Star of the Galaxies: My expedition
After cracking open the history textbooks on one of the most famous (and infamous) MMOs of the past decade and talking to two groups of crack veterans, it was finally time for the Game Archaeologist to strap on his lightwhip, kick over the nearest Astromech droid, and dive headfirst into Star Wars Galaxies. Although I've been interested in Star Wars Galaxies since 2003, its apparent complexity scared me off back in the beginning (when I made the choice to scoot over to the equally complex Anarchy Online during that time). Later on, I felt as if it was too late to jump on the SWG bandwagon, feeling as if the entire Galaxies playerbase was finishing up their Master's degrees and I'd be entering the equivalent of preschool. Fortunately, this article series gave me an excellent excuse to stop coming up with excuses and simply go for it -- and with the counsel of several friends and Massively writers who know the SWG ropes, I found my footing just fine. Click on the first picture of the gallery to join me on my journey to the stars -- and don't forget to read my impressions under each screenshot! %Gallery-95887%
505 Games did it, Mum!
European budget publisher 505 Games announced a new title for the children. Because the children are a very profitable demographic our future! The game is called I Did It Mum! and comes in boys' or girls' versions. Both versions are jam-packed with educational minigames like "Toy Train" and "Drive the Car." And both versions are totally for preschoolers, so you have an excuse not to be interested in the thing yourself. But if you have kids, this may be perfect "Playing DS Games Training" to help them get ready for other training games.[Via Joystiq]
QRIO's turn as Kindergarten Cop
Remember how Sony sent one of their QRIO humanoid robots on a publicity stunt goodwill mission to a US preschool last year? Well it seems that their intentions were less than completely altruistic, because while the children -- ages two-and-under -- joyfully danced and played with the now-deceased bot, researchers from Sony and the University of California at San Diego's Machine Perception Laboratory were secretly videotaping and analyzing their every interaction. According to the study's recently-released results, QRIO's spy work revealed that, unsurprisingly, the toddlers developed an attachment to their artificial playmate, preferring to dance with the bot rather than alone, and eventually helping it up if it happened to topple over. Unfortunately this story is not all smiles and sunshine, however, as word of QRIO's double-life got back to the preschoolers, who reportedly overpowered their other robot companion, RUBI, and interrogated the hell out of it using a car battery and welding torch.[Via Robot Gossip]
